featured gallery for June 2018

An Epidemic of Creativity

As someone who has been living with HIV for 25 years I chose pieces that spoke to me about some part of the AIDS epidemic without being too literal. HIV and AIDS and the attitudes around it have changed significantly in the last 3 decades. In some parts of the world there is cause for great optimism. In others there is still desperation and lack of testing and treatment. Some of the work portrayed loneliness. A feeling that is a close companion to HIV and AIDS. I was often drawn to the male form as gay men shoulder a massive disproportionate amount of the AIDS burden. It changed the way we thought about our bodies and how we chose to express ourselves. It redefined our sense of beauty and reestablished a need to be heard. Blood, medicine, sex, nudity, love, pain, beauty, fear, freedom and discrimination. All common sources of inspiration and expression. There is not single common thread that ties all these works together other than that they all reminded me of some part of my 25 year journey with HIV.

Curator

Jack Mackenroth

Jack Mackenroth is the Senior Communications Officer for The Global Forum on MSM and HIV (MSMGF.org). As a media strategist for Housing Works in New York he art directed the #PrEPheroes photo campaign. In 2013 he was the creative force behind the multi-media anti-stigma and HIV testing initiative, “HIV Equal”. Jack became one of the nations most visible HIV activists after disclosing his own HIV status on season four of Project Runway. Most recently he conceptualized and launched the HIV Shower Selfie Challenge with the hashtag #weareALLclean on World AIDS Day 2014, which went globally viral in multiple countries with over 26 million social media impressions. Jack has two bachelor’s degrees from the University of California at Berkeley and one from Parson School of Design.